The moment Microsoft announced it would lock other browsers out of being installed on Windows RT, we all knew regulatory bodies the world over were wringing their hands. Today, this has been confirmed: in the wake of an investigation into Microsoft not complying with the existing antitrust rulings regarding browser choice, the EU has also announced it's investigating Windows 8 x86 and Windows 8 RT (ARM).

Might want to check your history a little better friend. The Linux EEE PC did not disappear because "MSFT pulled on the chain" but because the company went out of business that was supplying the version they were using and Asus didn't want to build their own distro, not to mention that the tab UI that the EEE was using was proprietary and owned by the company in question, which was Xandros BTW.

Oh and just FYI but the "Windows tax" is in actually a "Windows tax break" because you are taking a machine which OEMs like Asus are paid to put trialware on and then wiping. Have you contacted Asus about writing them a check for the cost difference between what the system would have cost without trialware and what it cost with? didn't think so, but its pretty common knowledge that thanks to companies like Symantec paying to have Norton trial junk installed that Win 7 Start and HP don't cost the OEMs anything, in fact that make money per unit which they use to lower the cost of the system.